Well fucking deserved I say!! My current GotY and on the shortlist of favorite games ever played. Congrats Yoko Taro, Platinum, MONACA, and everyone else who contributed to this title, it truly is something to behold.

Originally Posted by Jawbreaker

I wonder how much the PS4 demo had to do with how successful the game turned out to be. I recall word of mouth being extremely positive.

Has to be a lot I feel. A lot of my friends who weren't Yoko Taro fans didn't even bat an eye to the game until they played the demo.

1. Watch reveal trailer at E3
2. See that Yoko Taro is partnering with PG
3. Immediate pre-order and media blackout until release

When I say not on my radar, I did think it looked interesting at E3, but before playing the demo, and having never played Drakengard or Nier games before, in my mind it was pretty much relegated to "obscure JRPG that might be good but that I'll never play".

Yup. I remember someone at SE said that a lot of Japanese devs would focus on making their games for PS4 because it gave them the best chances at being successful.

I think it also helps that Japanese developers in general realized they should play to their strengths instead of just making games based on Western ideas and styles. For a while there they seemed to be under the impression that Westerners wanted to play Western style games from Japanese developers. It seems that time is over and they realized that Western gamers love Japanese games because of their eccentricities, focus, and style.

This is so crazy. Never could have imagined Nier getting a sequel, and then see it be announced and turn into this kind of success! I only hope it means Yoko Taro gets more freedom and money to create whatever the hell he wants.

You know what makes Nier's success (both critical and commercial) even more impressive? The fact that it was made in less than 2 years. When the game was announced in E3 2015, the only things that they had to show were concept arts. It was the announcement of a Nier project between SE and PG, that at the time didn't even had a name. Now less than 2 years later, we are here.

Just think about it for a second. How many big console games in the current generation (or even PS3/X360 generation) can you name that A) had a small budget B) less than 2 years of development time, and yet still managed to (arguably) be a masterpiece.